‘Gang related’ murder in Centennial takes mother’s life

“Its all because of who she affiliates with,” says her grandmother. See why police are offering a reward for her killers …

Police arrive at this apartment complex, after a gang shooting that leaves a 21-year-old pregnant woman dead.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Loud, angry-sounding voices in the parking lot of Eastwood Village Apartments, at 15139 SE Powell Boulevard in the Centennial neighborhood of outer East Portland, were the precursor to a shooting death at 5:00 a.m. on August 17.

“East Precinct District Officers arrived in the area and learned from witnesses that the shots seemed to be focused on one of the apartments,” said Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Public Information Officer Sgt. Pete Simpson. “Apartment #7 may have been the intended target.”

A PPB Homicide Detective interviews a neighbor at the Centennial neighborhood apartment complex.

Neighbors said they witnessed several men sneaking around the back of the building who started shooting through the walls.

“Officers located a female adult deceased inside an apartment,” Simpson added. “Witnesses have told police that the suspects were several African American males with handguns.

“Preliminary information from witnesses indicates that the shooting is gang-related,” Simpson added.

Detectives use the PPB Mobile Precinct as their office while investigating the murder inside an apartment at this location.

Homicide Detectives and Criminalists from the PPB Forensic Evidence Division traveled out to the apartment complex, as did members of the Bureau’s Gang Enforcement Team and Gun Task Force, using the Bureau’s Mobile Precinct as its on-location headquarters.

Later that day, officials said the victim in the shooting was identified as 21-year-old Ervaeua Ronchelle Herring, a resident in the apartment complex. In the hail of bullets that riddled her apartment wall, fired by at least two guns, Herring was struck twice.

Detectives confer about their findings, outside the apartment complex where they are investigating a gang-related shooting death.

The victim’s relatives at the site said she was the mother of a 1-year-old son who wasn’t home at the time of the shooting. “The Oregon Medical Examiner also determined that Herring was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time of her death,” Simpson later revealed.

Ervaeua Ronchelle Herring, as seen in a DMV photo, and in a picture supplied by her family.

A woman who spoke with reporters, claiming to be Herring’s grandmother, declined to identify herself – perhaps because of her strong opinion about the shooting death.

“It’s all because of who she affiliates with,” the woman said. “I don’t know ‘why’ because she didn’t do nothing. It must have been some of those folks she was messing with.”

According to Herring’s Facebook page, she’d attended Parkrose High School and was a “model at Abercrombie & Fitch”.

The evening of August 19, friends and family held a community forum to mourn her loss and raise money for her family the Billy Webb Elks Lodge in North Portland.

This criminal investigation continues throughout the day.

Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in this case, or any unsolved felony, and tipsters can remain anonymous.

Leave a Crime Stoppers tip online, CLICK HERE. Or, text CRIMES (274637) and in the subject line put 823HELP, followed by the tip; or, call 503-823-HELP (4357) and leave the tip information.